The Gazette's Viewpoint: President Barack Obama Deserves Two Cheers for Pro-Fracking Appointments

Two significant pieces of good news last week deserved more
attention than they received.

First, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that recoverable
natural gas resources in the northern Plains states are three times
greater than previously thought.

Second, President Barack Obama's newest secretary of the
interior, Sally Jewell, said "we must develop our domestic energy
resources armed with the best available science, and this unbiased,
objective information will help private, nonprofit and government
decision makers at all levels make informed decisions about the
responsible development of these resources."

Jewell was referring to hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the
process by which a pressurized mixture of (mostly) water and
chemicals is injected into shale rock formations deep underground.
The process provides access to natural gas deposits that would
otherwise be impossible to reach. The technology has been in use for
60 years in Texas and Oklahoma, but its phenomenally successful use
more recently in Pennsylvania to develop the Marcellus Shale and in
North Dakota to develop the Bakken formation has sparked an energy
revolution in this country.

Big Green environmentalists oppose fracking, claiming it
threatens groundwater even though the evidence for this claim is all
but nonexistent. Even so, "No fracking" has become a rallying cry
even louder than "No nukes." But the Obama administration hasn't
quite jumped on the anti-fracking bandwagon. Former Environmental
Protection Agency Director Lisa Jackson, for example, called natural
gas the "bridge fuel" to a renewable energy future. More recently,
Obama's pick for Secretary of Energy, MIT scientist Ernest Moniz,
has described water and air pollution risks associated with fracking
"challenging but manageable" with proper regulation and oversight. …

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